1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a cleaning apparatus of tubular members for use in pickling facilities for the same, and more particularly, to an apparatus for cleaning tubular members such as zirconium or zirconium alloy tubes while avoiding their mutual contact to prevent occurrence of stain or physical damages such as scratches or dents thereon.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has been known that tubular metallic products made of zirconium or its alloy as cladding tubes for nuclear fuel are subjected to a pickling treatment at each of the inner and outer walls thereof as well as, after the pickling treatment, to a cleaning treatment in a slightly warm water tank, high-temperature water tank, alkaline water tank and purified water tank and finally to drying since the surfaces of such products require a strict quality control and must be mirror-finished.
In such a cleaning treatment as mentioned above, if tubular members are caused to contact one another, particularly, when immersing in the slightly warm water tank tubular materials which have been pickled and fed from an unplugging machine, such contact would become a cause of stain or physical damages such as scratches or dents to be developed there, thereby to render the important pickling treatment meaningless.